


Heart Beat to the Beat of the Drum

by starfleetblues



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M, here heather i wrote you the thing, it's happy i swear, it's ok ignore the death warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 21:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfleetblues/pseuds/starfleetblues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim wasn’t sure what was happening. </p>
<p>One moment, he was walking home from class in the dark. He knew he wasn’t supposed to take the alleys, but he did often because they were so much faster than the long way home.</p>
<p>The next, there was a gun pressed to his back and a voice demanding his wallet. Jim scoffed- he was a college student living with his mother. He wasn’t exactly loaded, but he handed the wallet over with no further protest.</p>
<p>There was a crack that rang through the air, and Jim felt a flash of pain. </p>
<p>Then, nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart Beat to the Beat of the Drum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iseult1124](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iseult1124/gifts).



> Vampire!AU for Heather because SHE GIVES ME TOO MANY IDEAS DAMMIT  
> As always, I own no part of the Star Trek Universe, including these characters.

Jim wasn’t sure what was happening. 

One moment, he was walking home from class in the dark. He knew he wasn’t supposed to take the alleys, but he did often because they were so much faster than the long way home.

The next, there was a gun pressed to his back and a voice demanding his wallet. Jim scoffed- he was a college student living with his mother. He wasn’t exactly loaded, but he handed the wallet over with no further protest.

There was a crack that rang through the air, and Jim felt a flash of pain. 

Then, nothing.

\--------  
Jim knew he had died. That wasn’t the confusing part.

What confused him was the pain ravaging his body. It was like fire in a way, engulfing his entire body and unending, cruel pain. He wondered if he was in Hell, and ran through his life in his mind, trying to find where he had gone wrong.

He made it up to seventeen wrongdoings by the age of eleven, when he drove his stepfather’s car off of a cliff, before he blacked out again from the pain.

\--------  
When he woke again, the pain had subsided, but there was a raging thirst he knew he wouldn’t be able to quench easily. He stumbled as he stood, crashing into the nearby dumpster before finding his balance. 

He smelled it as he gripped the dumpster for balance. Blood. Of someone coming down the alleyway towards him. 

That was wrong, he thought, frowning. He shouldn’t be able to smell someone’s blood from this far away, even if they were absolutely gushing. He could hear the steady heartbeat, one-two-three, pounding like a drum getting faster as the figure- he assumed it was a man from the larger footfalls, but he couldn’t be sure- began hurrying towards Jim.

“Are you alright, kid?”

Jim clung to the dumpster. No, he wasn’t fucking alright. He was dead, and he could smell this man’s blood, rich, slightly tinged with bourbon. God, he was only nineteen, and he was dead. Or... Undead. Something. Jim intended to nod and wave the stranger on, but as he moved his hand, he crumpled to the ground, the bullet in his abdomen still impairing his physical motions.

“Shit!” he heard the man exclaim, and felt gentle hands on his neck, searching for a pulse and failing to find one. “It’s alright, I’m a doctor,” he soothed as Jim’s eyes flew back open. “My name’s McCoy, Leonard McCoy. I’m going to help you. What’s your name?”

"Jim Kirk,” the blond mumbled. “’M nineteen. Got shot. Dead now.”

“No, no, Jim, you’ll be fine,” Leonard assured as he ripped Jim’s shirt open to look for the bullet wound, finding no exit wound. “I’m going to roll you over now, okay? I’ve got to try to stop the bleeding.”

“Okay.”  
Only there was no entry wound anymore. Jim’s body had healed itself in the transformation, and now the bullet was permanently embedded in Jim’s large intestine. 

Leonard allowed Jim to roll himself back over and push himself up.

That was his first mistake.

All Jim could think about was the smell emanating from Leonard and the sound of his heart pounding against his chest.

So he did the natural thing. He lunged forward and sank his teeth into the doctor’s forearm.

He wasn’t sure why the coppery, slightly sweet taste disgusted him. All he had been thinking about since the doctor entered the alley was blood, and now he wanted to vomit. 

\--------  
That was the night Jim Kirk realized he wasn’t human anymore. He had fangs and a thirst for blood that was hard to satisfy, especially if there was any alcohol in the system.

Jim was a vampire, and he hated himself for it.

That was the night Leonard McCoy realized that humans may not be the only thing in this world that existed. There were creatures that were unnatural, alarming and dangerous.

Leonard thought he might be in love with one of them.

\--------  
Jim moved into a first-floor apartment with small windows and adjusted his class schedule to only take night classes. He lived in a bad neighborhood where the occasional troublemaking teen wouldn’t be missed. He adjusted to life.

Leonard tracked him down a month later. “I can help you,” he said as Jim pulled the door open just enough to see the doctor. “Please, just let me.”

\--------  
So Jim did. The doctor began stopping by every third day after his shift with a stolen bag of blood from the hospital. Jim learned to make the blood last across the three days, and he stopped killing. 

Leonard and Jim traded life stories as they sat in Jim’s apartment with the blackout curtains. Jim told Leonard about how he used to be a “troubled child”, according to the cops and every teacher he had ever had. Leonard talked about his failed marriage and his daughter, born just as he finished medical school at age 24, stating that “All he had left was his bones.” Jim never let him live the line down, and laughed every time Leonard scowled at the nickname the blond saddled him with.

They became fast friends, and Jim wasn’t surprised when he’d return from class to see Leonard sprawled on the couch in his scrubs after a rough shift or when he started finding shirts that were just a little too broad in the shoulders to properly fit him or bore the emblem of far away Ole Miss. 

Jim was surprised when he realized he was maybe, just a tiny bit, in love with one Leonard H. McCoy, MD. 

\--------  
Jim kissed Leonard a week after he realized this. Leonard came in after his shift, covered in vomit and swearing as he stumbled through the door. Jim wordlessly directed him to the shower and made sure that there were sweatpants and one of Leonard’s sweatshirts waiting outside the door. 

“Bones, there’s clothes for you outside the door,” he called after knocking gently on the door. “I’ll make you some coffee.”

When Leonard emerged in clean clothes, his hair was rumpled and he gratefully accepted the black coffee that Jim had learned to make specifically for his unofficial roommate. When the doctor put the mug down, Jim seized his face and frantically pressed their lips together, realizing that he had never enjoyed the taste of coffee until it mingled with Leonard’s lips. Leonard’s arms wrapped around Jim’s torso within a second of the kiss beginning, realizing that he was well and truly screwed if he was in love with a teenage vampire.

\--------  
Leonard moved in fully before the month ended. He slept with Jim within the year, and discovered that while Jim may have been technically dead, the kid had incredible stamina and the lack of heartbeat didn’t do anything to prevent Jim from getting it up. 

He bought a ring after just two years, knowing that while Jim may live forever, he wouldn’t, and he wanted to take advantage of as much time as he could with the vampire.

\--------  
They went out for dinner on their two year anniversary, the night Leonard was intending to propose. The April night was warm enough that they opted to go for a stroll, and Leonard was hoping to direct Jim through the park nearby, to make his move, but Jim had other ideas. 

“Let’s just go home,” the blond whispered into Leonard’s ear, one hand making it’s way down the doctor’s chest and playing with the topmost buttons, the other resting on Leonard’s shoulder. “I want to show you how much I love you.”

Leonard reluctantly let Jim drag him through the alleyways towards their apartment rather than the park. He told himself that there was always tomorrow, or any other day to propose.

They were two blocks from home, Jim shoving his hand into Leonard’s back pocket and whispering details about what he wanted to do when they were home when they were stopped. 

A vagrant jumped out from behind the nearby pile of trash, shakily pointing a pistol at the pair. “Give me everything you’ve got!” he called, voice shaking with his hands.

The pair pulled out wallets and took off watches, Leonard avoiding removing the ring from his pocket or his mobile phone from inside his jacket. “We’re not going to hurt you,” Jim said slowly, but Leonard could hear him breathing heavily. “Just take our things and go,” the blond urged.

“What about phones,” the robber prompted. “Give me your phones.”

“Don’t have ‘em,” Jim lied. “Left them at home. Just go.”

Leonard’s ex-wife chose that moment to return his phone calls inquiring about their daughter, and the shrill ring cut through the night as the doctor closed his eyes. 

“You’re lying!”

There was a crack that shot through the air, and Leonard crumpled to the ground soundlessly. 

“Bones? Bones!” Jim was screaming, cradling the doctor in his arms.

“’M okay, kid,” Leonard mumbled. “Be fine.”

“I can save you,” Jim choked out. “We can be together forever.”

Leonard smiled sleepily. “Are you sure, kid?”

Jim nodded, and bent down to kiss Leonard. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so, so sorry, Bones.”

“I love you.”

Jim bent down and sank his teeth into the doctor’s neck for just a moment, only long enough to release the venom that would turn the doctor into a monster that went against everything he had ever stood for.

He held Leonard’s hand as he screamed out from the pain that seemed to last an eternity.

\--------  
“Jim, you ready to go?”

“Yeah, one sec!”

Jim pulled the door of the now-bare apartment closed behind him as he carried the last box to the car. There was a ring on his left hand and a scar on Leonard’s neck; they now matched in every way possible.

“Where are we going?” he asked as he passed the box over and helped his husband fit it in the trunk.

“Wherever the road takes us,” Leonard answered simply as he closed the trunk and looked up at the moon. “Anywhere we want to go.”

Jim smiled and pressed a hand to the ex-doctor’s cheek before kissing him. “That’s my favorite kind of trip.”

“I know,” Leonard replied with a grin.

“I love you,” Jim whispered.

“I love you too, darlin’. Always.” Leonard’s fingers slipped between Jim’s as they kissed again, with nothing but the night as their witness.

After all, they had forever. If they had to spend an extra day at a cheap motel, so be it.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if this is exactly what you wanted, darlin', but this is what you got! I know how much you hated it last time I split them up, so I figured I'd keep them together for you. I hope you liked it!  
> I took the title from Ke$ha's song "Die Young" before I even realized how accurate it is about Jim. Oops!


End file.
